Indonesia takes measures to tackle terror financing, money laundering

Indonesia's Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said here on Monday that the country now has law on fund transfer that would tackle efforts to transfer funds for unruly intentions, such as terror act, drug dealers financing and money laundering activities.

Speaking at a session to inform the public on the imposition of the law registered as Law No. 3/2011, Tifatul said that any fund transfer into the country should be screened by agencies endorsed by the government and the central bank (BI).

"The law would enable our apparatus to detect the origin of those funds. It would narrow the operation of cross border crime," Tifatul was quoted by the detik.com as saying, adding that the agency tasked to carry out the fund transfer analysis was the Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysts Center (PPATK).

Budi Rochadi, a BI governor deputy, said that the law was originally enacted to, among others, addressing the terrorism issue. He said that before the enactment of the law, Indonesia has many loopholes that can be used by terrorists to transfer their funds into the country.

"The law requires full information on fund transferring activities that constitute identity of the fund senders, receivers, the sum of transferred fund and the date," Budi said.